Yeah for me it didn't feel like it really fit in with the film's themes, it just felt like it was thrown in for the sake of being shocking and little else.

Seriously?

_________________Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel, and from here on out I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I've already felt.

Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:21 pm

Thief12

Assistant Director

Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:35 pmPosts: 822Location: Puerto Rico

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Vexer wrote:

MGamesCook wrote:

Now that I'm refreshing my memory, I definitely guessed the box thing as soon as the detective said they found on spacey the blood of an unidentified third party. Man, that's screwed up. I do think the wrath/envy thing was guessable enough. It figures that he would try to provoke one of them into killing him. The whole thing is a little too fucked up in a way that goes beyond any realistic scenario.

Yeah for me it didn't feel like it really fit in with the film's themes, it just felt like it was thrown in for the sake of being shocking and little else.

I don't see how it wouldn't fit with the themes. It's the culmination of Doe's work, which exemplifies the two remaining sins of wrath and envy. I don't see how it might feel "thrown in" when the film has built the foundation for something like that.

This Netflix documentary follows Mitt Romney around from 2006, when he first ran for the Republican nomination for president, to 2012, when he was defeated by Barack Obama. It interested me because it showed Romney behind the scenes of the campaign, and promised a more personal look at him. We get some of that; Romney jokes with his family, talks a bit of strategy, and expresses his misgivings and ambitions. However, this is also a missed opportunity; we never really hear Romney discuss his personal philosophy at length, and in the end he remains a bit of an enigma.

One thing is very clear, and that is why he lost to Obama. Romney is fantastic one-on-one with people; he cracks jokes, listens intently, and is actively engaged with the voters. On the stump he is awful, robotic and detached. Never during the campaign did we see the Romney on display in this film. If we had, I can't say he would have won, but it may have been a closer race.

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Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:03 pm

roastbeef_ajus

Second Unit Director

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:07 pmPosts: 313

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Vexer wrote:

I don't like Se7en either, as far as serial killer thrillers go it's nothing special, I found the ending especially weak.

What would have been stronger?...his wife flying out from behind the car, jason statham kicking kevin spacey's character in the head?

Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:25 pm

Vexer

Auteur

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:02 pmPosts: 3654Location: Zion, IL

Re: Last Movie You Watched

roastbeef_ajus wrote:

Vexer wrote:

I don't like Se7en either, as far as serial killer thrillers go it's nothing special, I found the ending especially weak.

What would have been stronger?...his wife flying out from behind the car, jason statham kicking kevin spacey's character in the head?

The other planned ending for the film would've been better.

Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:29 pm

Thief12

Assistant Director

Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:35 pmPosts: 822Location: Puerto Rico

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Pi (1998) I was surprised by how engaging and intriguing this film was. Pretty good performance by Sean Gullette, but Aronofsky's kinetic, fast-paced direction is mostly what sells it. However, as it is now, I had some slight issues with the very ending. But anyway, I might have more thoughts about this later. Grade: a high B+

Look...don't bother, Thief. It's not worth your time and energy. Just take it as a matter of principle that any idea or opinion about film that you hold dear, Vexer feels the opposite way.

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Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:02 am

peng

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:42 pmPosts: 1378Location: Bangkok

Re: Last Movie You Watched

What was the other planned ending?

Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:13 am

Ken

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:26 pmPosts: 1728

Re: Last Movie You Watched

peng wrote:

What was the other planned ending?

Brad Pitt gets hanged, but he survives and goes back in time. Then he fights in World War II.

_________________The temptation is to like what you should like--not what you do like... another temptation is to come up with an interesting reason for liking it that may not actually be the reason you like it.

Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:39 am

ilovemovies

Producer

Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:04 amPosts: 2205

Re: Last Movie You Watched

I just looked up what the original planned ending was for Seven. Now THAT would have been a cop out ending IMO. Well, I don't know if it would have been a cop out, but it definitely wouldn't have been anywhere near as memorable.

But you know what might have worked? Have Morgan Freeman shoot Brad Pitt to stop him from killing John Doe. That might've worked. But I'm glad they stuck with the ending they had.

Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:57 am

MGamesCook

Director

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 1845

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Quote:

But you know what might have worked? Have Morgan Freeman shoot Brad Pitt to stop him from killing John Doe. That might've worked.

A lot of people have referenced Goodfellas with this; for me, its style takes more inspiration from another 1990 release, Miller's Crossing. Namely, a crime drama that isn't actually about crime, but characters.

And to be fair - what characters they are! I have a lot of patience for films that are showcases for the actors involved, and the acting in this is stupendous. Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner - all superb. All proving what they can do when given the right stuff.

Bale and Adams are fantastic, and if either fail to win an Oscar, it will be harsh. Bale's performance as a conman is somewhat atypical in that he doesn't seem to have a bad bone in his body. He's just a dreamer. To him it's all abstract, fantasy stuff. Romantic even. And this open the door for Adams, who after The Fighter, Man of Steel and this (along with significant others) must be the number one actress in Hollywood today. She's delightful in this. I fell a bit in love with her myself. Incredibly sexual, yet deceptively vulnerable - it's completely believable she could ruin some poor sap's life. And that's precisely what she does to Bradley Cooper, who puts in probably the most complex performance I've seen from him. And one that proves he has the materials beyond good looks.

Where American Hustle does fall down a bit, is the plot. Not all of it, but it stalls slightly in the second quarter, not really sure where it wants to go. This, for me, is exacerbated by the numerous scenes shot in small rooms that lend some claustrophobia to the confusion. I wonder if this is done to give the characters a heightened sense of gravitas - making them more important than their surroundings - but it isn't always entirely comfortable.

Of course the plot is subservient to the characters, which means the film's relative complexity may alienate some viewers who find that it doesn't explain itself well enough (certainly on the first watch), but I really enjoyed American Hustle, for the same reasons I enjoyed Glengarry Glen Ross earlier in the week. It gives talented people the chance to show off their shit. And that's good enough for me.

8.5

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Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:40 am

MGamesCook

Director

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 1845

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Quote:

numerous scenes shot in small rooms that lend some claustrophobia to the confusion.

Case in point, Irvin's kitchen. The guy is an opulent hustler with a stay-at-home, trophy bitch of a wife. Surely his kitchen would fit comfortably 2 adults.

_________________... because I'm a wild animal

Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:30 am

MGamesCook

Director

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 1845

Re: Last Movie You Watched

NotHughGrant wrote:

Case in point, Irvin's kitchen. The guy is an opulent hustler with a stay-at-home, trophy bitch of a wife. Surely his kitchen would fit comfortably 2 adults.

I prefer the cinema of the open spaces, generally, but Russell does make the claustrophobia something of an asset. Gives the film a visual charge much of the time. Still, I prefer Altman's wider-lensed approach.

Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:49 am

nitrium

Director

Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:42 pmPosts: 1333Location: New Zealand

Re: Last Movie You Watched

The Spectacular Now (2013)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714206/Miles Teller plays Sutter, the seemingly stereotypical "dumb cool guy" from school we all remember. Except Sutter is actually self-aware, he knows exactly what he is, and it makes him strangely sympathetic. This I think is what makes The Spectacular Now so refreshing. After losing his perfect popular girlfriend Cassidy he befriends and, and slowly falls for, the relatively plain and unpopular Aimee (wonderfully played by Shailene Woodley) all the while still pining for Cassidy. This film does NOT follow the "boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl" back cliche and it doesn't have wisecracking sidekicks, it's just pleasant interaction between two people who have genuine affection and respect toward one another. Another romantic drama that further cements my opinion these are just a lot more reliable (as entertainment and for quality) than their "comedy" counterparts.8/10.

Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:05 pm

Ken

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:26 pmPosts: 1728

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Tomorrow Night

What if David Lynch had made Clerks instead of Kevin Smith? Would anyone want to watch it? If the answer is yes, here it is, or something like it.

Louis CK has a gift for visual storytelling that displays itself in his TV series Louie, but it's apparent even here in a film made 15 years ago. That's not to say that the plot is logical or that the actors are all on the same page, but the man knows how to craft a mood and engage the senses. And he knows how to match the strangeness of a mood to the strangeness of his material.

Witness a stick-in-the-mud photo store clerk who can only achieve sexual pleasure by using his balls to stir a bowl of ice cream. Witness another man who's been an army private for a couple decades, oblivious the whole time that his fellows have been throwing away his mail and laughing about it in front of his face. Witness a lonely old woman, the only halfway normal person in the movie, getting harangued constantly by her apparently psychotic husband. This all comes together after a while in an absurd sort of way, though it takes some time getting there.

Tomorrow Night is a curiosity, and it's hard to say whether or not it's worth watching. That would require some kind of common standard to judge it by, and I'm not sure there is one. Sure enough, this movie escapes the kind of barely-sensible goofball shit you'd expect from an untested filmmaker making a low-budget comedy with a cavalcade of his comedian friends in the 1990s. In fact, it's so far beyond that--above, beyond, lateral, whatever. It's not even in the same galaxy as the Hebrew Hammer or Kentucky Fried Movie. It is what it is. Eraserhead for the balls-in-a-bowl-of-ice-cream crowd.

_________________The temptation is to like what you should like--not what you do like... another temptation is to come up with an interesting reason for liking it that may not actually be the reason you like it.

Tue Feb 04, 2014 6:02 am

ilovemovies

Producer

Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:04 amPosts: 2205

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Ride Along - ** 1/2 out of ****

The last 30 minutes or so nearly save this movie. Up until then there are times when this movie can be a chore to sit through and Kevin Hart can be awfully annoying. Fortunately, the last 30 minutes are fairly enjoyable.

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